Fire at Sunset: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 4 by Lila Ashe Page B

what’s going on. He’s in the last stages and—”
    Bonnie put her finger over her lips. “ Shhh .” In a louder voice she said, “So this is the amazing father you told me about.”
    Caz shot a look at her that seemed more made of confusion than anything else.
    “And you’re right. He is handsome.” Bonnie tilted her head. “No, not more handsome than you are, Caz, I think you’re wrong there. I think you’re both equally good looking.”
    Caz made a choking sound as Bonnie winked at him.  
    “Mr. Lloyd, I work with your son at the Darling Bay Fire Department. I can tell you this, we sure were lucky to get him. I’m friends with one of the people in HR, and she says that he was not only the most competent applicant, but he was the most eager to work with us. She told me that he had family in the area he wanted to be near, and now I see why. With a place like this, I can totally imagine why he’d want to be home. You’ve built a beautiful house on an amazing spread of land.” Bonnie scanned the bed to make sure she wasn’t going to hurt him or sit on his oxygen tube, and then she perched on the edge. “You don’t mind, do you? I rode all the way here on my bicycle, and it’s a good ten miles. Of course, you probably know exactly how far it is to town from here, don’t you? Caz told me you know every inch of this ranch like the back of your hand. My family, we don’t have anything like this. Do you know my parents? You might, if you ever shopped for knick knacks in the antique section of downtown. My mother owns Darling Bay Trinkets, and if you’ve ever been to her shop, I guarantee you’d remember her. Very few people forget her.”  
    “Kind of like you,” said Caz quietly.
    Bonnie looked at him as he leaned against an old, dark bureau. He’d been watching as she talked, his crystalline eyes intently focused on her.  
    Caz spoke again. “You’re lying to him.”  
    “I’m not.”  
    He arched an eyebrow. “Good looking?”  
    Bonnie felt color heat her cheeks and she lowered her voice to a whisper even though it felt rude to do so in Tony Lloyd’s presence. “I think he is. Look at those high cheekbones.” She spoke directly to Tony then. “Don’t listen to him. You’ve had a better shave today than your son has. He’s all stubble, but I can tell you’re a man who’s always taken care of himself.”  
    “He was,” said Caz in a low voice. “He really was. Can you…”  
    “What?”  
    Caz looked at the ground and then met her eyes directly. “I hate lies.”  
    “Caz, I’m not—”  
    “But can you keep talking to him like that for a little while longer?”  
    Bonnie blinked in confusion. “Okay?”
    “It sounds…nice.”  
    “Okay, then.”  
    Caz took a hesitant step forward and then, confusingly, he folded his arms and pressed his back against the bureau again. He nodded, as if to give her permission.  
    Bonnie smiled. She might not know much about what to do with Caz, who sent windmills whirling in her stomach and made her ache in a way she didn’t understand, but she knew how to talk to a man locked inside his own body, a man who’d barely moved since they’d entered the room.  
    She scooted an inch sideways so she was more firmly planted on the bed. “I hope you don’t mind me sitting here with you, sir. Your son Caz is…I’ve…enjoyed getting to know him a little better. I told him just the other day that a man with such a big personality like his had to have had a strong father at home.” She’d said no such thing. “I know you don’t feel like talking right now. If that changes, you just let me know, okay? In the meantime, I’ll just tell you a little bit about my family. My maternal grandmother—maybe you knew her? Hazel Lake? She was a good woman. And the way she ended up in Darling Bay involved a pig in a wheelbarrow, if you can believe that…”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

    Caz watched.  
    He listened.  
    Bonnie spun a tale about a